MAGISTRATES in Notts are around three times more likely to send someone to prison compared to courts in other parts of the country, figures reveal.
Research by the charity Howard League for Penal Reform has shown that magistrates' courts in Notts are sending more people to jail than elsewhere.
The charity – which works for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison – has criticised the court system in Notts for "imposing prison sentences in cases where they are unnecessary".
Instead of custodial sentences the charity is suggesting that magistrates consider community sentences.
Its statistics show that Notts imposed custodial sentences in 4.5 per cent of the cases in 2011 – more often than areas such as Warwickshire (1.5 per cent) and Northumbria (1.6 per cent). The national average was 3.8 per cent.
Magistrates' courts in Notts handed down 24,224 sentences to men, women and children during 2011, of which 1,091 were custodial.
Richard Posner of Bhatia Best Solicitors in Carrington Street, Nottingham, agreed with the use of community sentences but said the charity's figures couldn't be trusted.
He said: "I am torn between expressing my full support for the Howard League in its opinion that too many short-term prison sentences are imposed and irritation at the misleading use of statistics which suggest that Notts magistrates are more punitive than those in other counties.
"The figures take no account of the type of offence being dealt with in each court area. Comparison has been made with rates of imprisonment in Northumbria and Warwickshire. It is exceptionally unlikely that Justices in Alnwick and Leamington Spa are often dealing with offences as serious as those coming before the Nottingham bench daily.
"Nottingham Youth Court in particular deals with teenagers up to the age of 17 who may have committed street robberies, GBH or even sexual offences.
"I suspect that an analysis by case type would show that the Notts bench is in fact more lenient than those in country areas.
"The public wishes to see criminals punished and rightly so. Those that commit very serious crime must be imprisoned to protect the public. Such offenders will in the main be dealt with in the Crown Court.
"Balanced against that must be a recognition that we have an overcrowded prison system that provides very few facilities to work to towards the rehabilitation of its inmates.
"A short-term sentence satisfies society's desire for punishment. It has the short-term benefit of taking the offender off the streets. Unfortunately, statistics show that once released he or she is far more likely to offend than if they had been punished in the community.
"We need the public and magistrates to accept that community orders are not a soft option. Prison is not too difficult for many criminals."
Ministry of Justice figures show that short-term prison sentences are failing to cut crime while only 36 per cent of adults who began community orders between April 2010 and March 2011 went on to re-offend within a year.
Frances Crook, chief executive of the charity, said: "One cannot ignore the striking disparity in sentencing trends between different areas. A short-term prison sentence is a catastrophe for everyone. It costs the taxpayer a fortune."
